School House behind Isaac Morley’s House
Kirtland Relief Map
Path to the school house behind Isaac
Morley’s home
Isaac Morley Farm
Newel K. Whitney Store and Home
Newel K. Whitney Store
Joseph’s Visit to the Whitney Store:
One night --- it was midnight --- as my husband and I, in
our house at Kirtland, were praying to the father to be
shown the way, the spirit rested upon us and a cloud
overshadowed the house. It was though we were out of
the doors. The house passed away from our vision. We
were not conscious of anything but the presence of the
spirit and the cloud that was over us. We were wrapped
in the cloud. A solemn awe pervaded us. We saw the
cloud and felt the spirit of the Lord. Then we heard a
voice out of the cloud saying: “Prepare to receive the
word of the Lord, for it is coming!” At first we marveled
greatly, but from that moment we knew that the word of
the Lord was coming to Kirtland (Edward W. Tullidge, The
Women of Mormondom, New York, 1877, 41-43).
On about Feb. 1, 1831, a sleigh stopped in front of the
Gilbert and Whitney store. A man jumped out and went
into the store, where he approached Newel Whitney,
extended his hand, and called him by name. Newel,
bewildered, responded, “I could not call you by name as
you have me.” “I am Joseph Smith the Prophet,” the
stranger said. “You have prayed me here, now what do
you want of me?” (“A Leaf from an Autobiography,”
Woman’s Exponent 7, August 15, 1878, 51).
Joseph had actually seen Newel upon his knees,
hundreds of miles away, praying for his coming to Kirtland
(Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, April 1912, 50).
Elizabeth Whitney described the Prophet’s arrival as “the
fulfillment of the vision we had seen of a cloud as of glory
resting upon our house (“A Leaf from Autobiography).
Newel K. Whitney Store:
At the Whitney store building, Joseph received seventeen
revelations that were compiled into the Doctrine and
Covenants.
He continued his translation of the Bible.
He conducted the School of the Prophets.
He organized the First Presidency.
Great spiritual outpourings occurred there, including
visions of the Father and the Son.
The store served as the first bishop’s storehouse.
When Joseph and Emma arrived in Kirtland in
February 1831, Emma was in her seventh month
of pregnancy with twins. Their first child, a boy
named Alvin, had died immediately after birth on
June 15, 1828, at Harmony Pennsylvania.
On April 30th, 1831, the same day the Smith twins
were born and died, Murdock’s wife had died
while giving birth to twins, a boy and a girl. He
realized that he could not care for them alone so
he asked Joseph and Emma to raise them. John
Murdock said the adoption was motivated by a
desire to “place them where they can be taught
in faith and principles of Salvation” (Murdock, “A
Brief Synopsis of the Life of John Murdock,” B-5).
Newel K. Whitney Home
Translating Room in the Newel K. Whitney Store
Doctrine & Covenants 37:3, 32
They should assemble at the Ohio!
Why?
1.
Some of the most important events in this
dispensation would take place.
2.
Construction of a temple and the subsequent
appearance of Christ.
3.
Appearance of Moses, Elias, and Elijah to restore keys,
powers, and majesties they held when on the earth.
4.
Saints would be “endowed with power from on high.”
5. Almost half of the revelations in the Doctrine
& Covenants were given in Ohio.
6. It was here that the school of the prophets
was formed.
7. Lectures on Faith given.
8. Most of the work on the Joseph Smith
Translation was completed.
9. The Abraham papyrus was purchased.
10. The law of consecration was revealed.
For Joseph and Emma, life in Kirtland was not
easy. They lived with other families for almost half
of the time they were there; they lost three
children; they suffered financial reverses; Church
responsibilities placed inordinate demands on
their time; visitors and curiosity seekers frequently
visited their home; they were often separated
because of Joseph’s frequent travels for the
Church; their living quarters were, in essence, the
Church’s headquarters; and persecution aimed
at the Church invaded their home and personal
lives.
In seven Ohio years, Joseph and Emma lived in
five locations.
Most of the faithful Saints who followed the Lord’s
command to “go to the Ohio” acted out of pure faith.
Nearly all who gathered to Kirtland needed assistance of
some kind.
Housing those who gathered to Kirtland became a
constant challenge.
New arrivals often appeared at the doorstep of friends,
acquaintances, and strangers with no notice.
Until 1832, most of the Saints gathering to Kirtland settled
on the Isaac Morley farm. Later they settled on the
Frederick G. Williams farm and other land purchased by
the Church.
Brigham Young recorded:
When we arrived in Kirtland (in September 1833), if any
man that ever did gather with the Saints was any poorer
than I was --- it was because he had nothing….I had
two children to take care of --- that was all. I was a
widower. “Brother Brigham, had you any shoes?” No;
not a shoe to my foot, except a pair of borrowed boots.
I had no winter clothing except a homemade coat that
I had had three or four years. “Any pantaloons?” No,
“What did you do? Did you go without?” No; I
borrowed a pair to wear till I could get another pair. I
had travelled and preached and given away every
dollar of my property. I was worth a little property when
I started to preach….I had travelled and preached until
I had nothing left to gather with; but Joseph said:
“come up;” and I went up the best I could (Journal of
Discourses, 26 vol. 11, 295).
In an address to the Saints in Salt Lake in 1860, Brigham
Young described his experience in Kirtland:
You have frequently heard me refer to my poverty when
I moved to Kirtland I the fall of 1833. Not a man ever
gathered with the Saints, so far as I have known, but had
more property than I had. When I came into the Church
I distributed my substance and went to preaching, and
when I gathered with the Saints I had nothing…I went to
work for Brother Cahoon, one of the Kirtland Temple
Committee. He had little or nor means, and only a shell
of a house. I helped him, and the Lord threw things in his
path, and he paid me for my labor.
When I went to Kirtland, I had not a coat in the world, for
previous to this I had given away everything I
possessed…neither had I a shoe to my feet, and I had to
borrow a pair of pants and a pair of boots (Journal of
Discourses 8:277-78).
The Millet Family
Artemus Millet was a wealthy builder in Canada at the
time he and his wife learned of the restored gospel in
late 1832. A family history tells the story:
Brigham Young was given a special mission by Joseph to
go to Canada and baptized Artemus, which resulted
from a consultation held at Kirtland respecting the
building of the Temple there, and as to who they could
get that was capable of taking charge of the work.
When Elder Lorenzo Snow exclaimed to the Prophet “I
know the very man who is capable of doing this work,”
“Who is he?” asked the Prophet. Lorenzo replied “it is
Artemus Millet.”
The Prophet turned to Brigham and said “I give you a
mission to go to Canada and baptize Brother
Artemus Millet, and bring him here. Tell him to bring a
thousand dollars with him.” Artemus was much
surprised when Brigham announced his mission to him
and he asked “What kind of a church is that?” Then
Brigham explained the principles of the Gospel to him
and he accepted and was baptized (Millet Family
History, “A Brief History of Artemus Millet,” MS., 70-71,
LDS Archives).
He later immigrated with his family to Utah after
supervising the masonry work on the temple. He
gave everything he had to building the kingdom.
The John Tanner Family
John sold several flourishing businesses, including land in
New York, a hotel, and other properties in order to
gather in Kirtland.
He received an impression by dream or vision of night,
that he was needed and must go immediately to the
Church in the West. He arrived in Kirtland on the 20th of
January, 1835 on the Sabbath. He learned that at the
time he received the impression that he must leave for
Kirtland, Joseph and the brethren had met in prayer and
had asked the Lord to send them a brother to assist
them in lifting the mortgage on the farm upon which the
temple was being built.
He loaned the prophet two thousand dollars.
It is estimated that at various times John gave or loaned
over fifty thousand dollars to Joseph Smith and the
Church. By the time he was forced to leave Ohio with
the Saints, he had lost a virtual fortune.
In April, 1838, John fitted up with a turnpike-cart, a
borrowed wagon, one horse of his own and three
borrowed ones, twenty dollars in cash and a keg of
powder to pay expenses, and started for Missouri with his
family --- eleven persons in all. When the money and
powder were spent, they were under the necessity of
appealing to the benevolence of the inhabitants on the
road for buttermilk and sometimes for other food to
sustain life. He had two children….One of these, a lovely
girl, died on this tedious journey.
Later John forgave the remaining debts incurred
in Kirtland, as the following incident illustrates:
At the April Conference in 1844, John was called
on a mission to the Eastern States. Before starting,
he went to Nauvoo, where he saw the Prophet
Joseph, and, meeting him on the street, gave him
his note of hand for the two thousand dollars
loaned in Kirtland, January 1835, to redeem the
temple land. The Prophet asked him what he
wanted done with the note. Elder Tanner replied,
“Brother Joseph, you are welcome to it.” The
Prophet then laid his right hand heavily on Elder
Tanner’s shoulder, saying, “God bless you, Father
Tanner; your children shall never beg bread.”
The Oliver Huntington Family
Joseph Sr. asked Oliver Huntington’s father to sell his farm
and move to Kirtland at “the first opportunity.”
The new convert “sold his farm, after much anxiety and
concern, by sacrificing about fifteen hundred dollars, in
selling it for that much less than it was really worth for the
sake of living with the church and obeying the word of
God as given to Joseph Smith (Huntington, Diary, 26)
Upon arriving in Kirtland, he was counseled to buy Jacob
Bump’s house and thirty acres of land. Jacob later
denied the faith and was dishonest and they lost there
money.
My poor old father who but six months
ago was in affluent circumstances,
and surrounded with everything to
make him comfortable, and render life
desirable; with a farm of upwards of
230 acres; a good stone house and
two frame barns…from all these
earthly comforts and conveniences, in
six months he was brought to live by
day work, and that but very poorly, still
my mother was the same mother and
the same wife.
It was torment to each, to see the other in want
and still more see their children cry for bread and
have none to give them nor know where the next
was coming from, and after all their trials and
sufferings not only there but elsewhere, never did I
hear either of them utter a murmuring, or
complaining word against any of the authorities
of the church, or express doubt of the truth of the
work…John and I, though small, felt for them as
much as our age would and could be expected;
we often would kneel beside each other in the
woods, and in the barn, daily, and pray to God
to have mercy and bless father and mother, that
they should not want nor see us want for bread
(Huntington, Diary, 28).
The Huntington family left Kirtland in the spring of
1838. They had to borrow money and a yoke of
oxen, and they sent their “best goods, and
everything but just what we really needed” by
riverboat to Missouri. All of their goods, however,
were lost, which caused Oliver to reflect on their
poor circumstances and rapid loss of material
wealth: “We never saw anything more of our
goods, which left us as bare as a sheered sheep;
we had the hide left, but not whole; and all that
change wrought in two years (Huntington, Diary,
19).
Many persons sold all they had just to get to
Kirtland.
Mary Fielding Smith after a
spiritual experience in the temple,
when she wrote, “What I felt that
day seemed to outweigh all the
affliction and distress of mind I
have suffered and said, “Well, if
others have come up easier, they
have not learned so much”
(Tanner, “Sketch of an Elder’s
Life,” 15).
The Trials Continue
On April 1, 1832, Joseph had to leave for Missouri on
Church business. Fearing mob action he suggested to
Emma that she go to Kirtland and stay with the family of
Newel K. Whitney. He later wrote: She went to Kirtland, to
Brother Whitney’s, and Sister Whitney’s aunt, Sarah Smith,
(who was then living with her,) inquired of her niece if my
wife was going to stay there; and, and on being
answered in the affirmative, said she should go away, for
there was not room enough for the both of them;
accordingly sister Whitney invited my wife to leave, which
she did immediately; having enjoyed about two hours
visit. She then went to Brother Reynolds Cahoon’s, and
father Smith’s, and Doctor Williams, where I found her,
very disconsolate on my return (“Truth Will Prevail,” Times
and Seasons 5 (September 2, 1844): 624).
At the time, Emma had no home of her own and
was trying to manage without the help of her
husband. After two ill-fated pregnancies, she
was in the fourth month of another one, and was
mourning for he lost son and caring for Julia, the
surviving adopted twin. During the two and a
half months that Joseph was in Missouri, she lived
with three different families. Joseph also
struggled with his trials during the trip. He was
poisoned, and except for a healing blessing from
Elder Whitney, he probably would have died.
No period in the
history of the Church
equals the Ohio era
for the outpouring of
divine knowledge.
Gathering to Ohio
Doctrine & Covenants 38:7, 12, 30, 32, 37, 39
Doctrine & Covenants 49 “Preach My
Gospel Unto the Shakers”
Doctrine & Covenants 49:2 Desire the truth in
part, but not all!
Doctrine & Covenants 49:4
What were some of the beliefs of the Shakers
that Leman Copley was to forsake?
1. Deity was dual in nature
God was both male and female. The male
principle of Christ came to the earth as Jesus.
The female principle was represented in “Mother
Ann” (Ann Lee, founder of the Shaker sect), and
in her the premise of our Lord’s Second Advent
was fulfilled. They also believed that angels and
spirits are both male and female.
2. Celibacy
They neither condemned nor opposed
marriage, but they asserted the possibility of
attaining a higher or angelic order of existence
to which virginity was a prime requisite (Ann Lee
was married and had four children).
3. Open confession of sins
4. Community of possessions
5. Separation from the world
Ostentation, luxury, and private property were
regarded as sinful and un-Christian.
6. Pacifism
(They refused to participate in military action
and believed disputes between nations could
be settled peacefully!)
7. Equality of the sexes
8. Consecrated work
9.
Continuous revelation
10.
External ordinances, especially baptism and
the Lord’s supper, ceased in the apostolic
age.
11.
Christ’s kingdom upon the earth began with
the establishment of the Shaker Church.
From the days of the Apostles the Lord had
sent no one to preach until the Shakers
were raised up to call in the elect in a new
dispensation (sound familiar?)
12. The doctrines of the Trinity, vicarious
atonement, and resurrection of the
body were not true.
13. Disease was considered to be a sin
against God.
14. Abstinence from meat.
The Shakers thrived as a church until
about the turn of the century. Since then
their numbers have declined until today
only one active community is left
(Sabbath Day Lake, Maine).
Doctrine & Covenants 49:2
Doctrine & Covenants 123:12
Doctrine & Covenants 49:8
Who?
Doctrine & Covenants 49:10
Did not believe in baptism, but practiced gifts of
the spirit.
Joseph Smith said it is impossible to practice the
gifts of the spirit without baptism (History of the
Church, 5:27).
Doctrine & Covenants 49:16
All spirits must come down!
Doctrine & Covenants 49:21
J.S.T. Genesis 9:11
Doctrine & Covenants 49:24-25
Both these verses have been fulfilled!
Joseph Smith said the saints would continue to suffer
much affliction and would be driven to the Rocky
Mountains.....but some of you will live to go assist in
making settlements and build cities and see the Saints
become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky
Mountains (Teachings, 255).
Doctrine & Covenants 50
“That Which Doth Not Edify is Not of God”
There was no point upon which the prophet Joseph Smith
dwelt more than the discerning of spirits (Times and
Seasons, 21).
Doctrine & Covenants 50:13-14
To preach is to articulate the doctrine of Christ!
Doctrine & Covenants 50:17
Some other way?
Intellectual Ways? Entertainment?
Doctrine & Covenants 50:23
President Joseph Fielding Smith taught:
“There is no saying of greater truth than ‘that which doth
not edify is not of God.’ And that which is not of God is
darkness, it matters not whether it comes in the guise of
religion, ethics, philosophy or revelation. No revelation
from God will fail to edify” (Church History and Modern
Revelation, 1:201-2).
Doctrine & Covenants 50:37
Joseph H. Wakefield
Joseph Wakefield claimed that because
Joseph Smith came out from the
translating room and immediately
engaged in playing with children that
Joseph was not a true prophet. He later
tried to defame Joseph Smith in Kirtland
and prove the Book of Mormon was
written by Solomon Spaulding. He was
Excommunicated in January 1834.
Doctrine & Covenants 50:40
Doctrine & Covenants 93:12
“Grace to Grace”
=
“Greenie Theory”
Learn a little, obey that, learn a little more, obey
that, etc.
Doctrine & Covenants 50:45-46
When the Lord speaks to you or me, it will be in a
method and manner justified by our
preparation, our gifts, our powers, for we have
all been endowed in some degree (Orson F.
Whitney, Conference Report, April, 1910).
Doctrine & Covenants 51-56
Law of Consecration
1. Celestial Law
2. Provides economic prosperity among all men!
3. The curse of idleness was to be abolished.
4. The key to make it work: Doctrine & Covenants 51:9
(honesty!)
How the Law of Consecration was to work:
1. The earth is the Lords.
2. Men become stewards of the Lord’s property.
3. You give all you have to the Bishop as the
Lord’s representative on earth.
4. You are given back what you need.
5. You operate that which you have been given.
6. At the end of the year all surplus was given to
the Bishop’s storehouse (building schools,
public roads, etc.).
7. At the year’s end, a re-evaluation was again
made.
President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., explained:
“The fundamental principle of this system was the
private ownership of property. Each man owned his
portion, or inheritance, or stewardship, with an absolute
title, which he could...treat as his own. The Church did
not own all of the property” (Conference Report, Oct.,
1942, 57).
Definition of Consecration:
To make or declare something sacred and to set it
aside for God’s purpose.
Doctrine & Covenants 51:3
“Equal”
This is not a case of dead level equality, it varied as
much as the man’s circumstances. His wants and
needs varied (J. Reuben Clark, Conference Report,
Oct., 1942).
The 4th General Conference
June 3rd, 1831, (Doctrine & Covenants 44)
Elder Hugh B. Brown testified that conferences were to
inspire and prepare us for the battle!
The Conference was held at the Isaac Morley farm which
was about 2 miles outside of Kirtland (It was a three day
conference).
About 2,000 members attended the conference. The
building was jammed with people. The doors and
windows were opened so that people could look in and
participate in the meeting. There were people all around
the building and all over the hillside. They sang hymns
and had prayer when the following happened:
Harvey Whitlock began to turn black to the human eye.
His fingernails began to grow long like unto a panther’s
and his eyes became huge “O’s.”
Hyrum Smith turned to Joseph and said, “That’s not from
God.” Joseph bowed his head in prayer and then said,
“Hyrum, you’re correct, Satan has entered the conference
and taken possession of Harvey Whitlock.
Joseph turned to Lyman Wight and said, “Lyman, Satan
has entered into Harvey Whitlock, I want you to cast him
out.” Lyman later said that he was terrified by Joseph’s
request. However, he had faith and was obedient. He
rebuked the spirit and it came out of the body of Harvey
Whitlock and went directly into the body of Leman
Copley.
Leman was sitting on the ledge of an open window. He
weighed over 300 pounds. The evil spirit picked up Leman
and threw him across the room. He did a double
somersault in the air and crashed into a bench where
people were seated. He broke the bench into several
pieces.
Joseph then turned to Harvey Whitlock and told
him to cast the evil spirit out of Leman Copley.
He obeyed and the evil one left Leman and
entered into John Murdock and then into Harvey
Green.
Finally, the Prophet Joseph stepped forward and
rebuked Satan and ordered him to leave the
conference (Autobiography of Levi Ward,
typescript, 33-34, Special Collections, Harold B.
Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo,
Utah).
Zebedee Coltrin said that when Satan left, he
went through the open doorway which was
jammed with people. Satan cut a swath ten
feet wide, knocking people to the ground as he
left in furor and hate.
At that time, Joseph said it was in fulfillment of
the words of Paul.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3
“The man of sin would be revealed to the
Church.”
Zebedee Coltrin said,
“I was sitting on the plank next to Levi
Hancock and I kept my head straight
towards Joseph Smith. I wouldn’t turn my
head to the left or to the right for fear of
something happening to me.
The first high priests in this dispensation were
ordained at that conference.
Lyman Wight and Harvey Whitlock were the
first, but others were also ordained.
During the conference Joseph Smith was
transfigured before the Saints.
His clothes became translucently white. His face
glowed with the sun of heaven and then he said,
“Let them kill me. I would not feel death as I am
right now. Behold I see the Son of God on the
right hand of the Eternal Father.”
All of this took place after Joseph and Hyrum had
detected and rebuked the evil one.
Joseph turned to Lyman Wight and Harvey
Whitlock and said, “If you two men have the
faith, it is your privilege this day to behold the
same. You may see the living God if you look to
the heavens.” Both testified that they could see
Him.
Sadly enough, both men (Lyman and Harvey)
were later excommunicated from the Church.
Joseph F. Smith once said that the reason God
doesn’t give people visions and spiritual
experiences of that kind is because people are
not mature enough to handle them.
Too often Satan comes along and says, “Believe
it not, and the people choose to believe him.
Joseph announced at the conference that John
the Beloved was then working with the Ten Lost
Tribes of Israel and preparing them for their return
from their long lost dispersion.
The conference lasted for three days and
continued all day long. Ordinations were
performed on the third day. We don’t know all
that Joseph taught.
Just imagine the treasures we would have had
all of his discourses been recorded.
Healing of Elsa Johnson
Elsa Johnson, wife to John Johnson had a
withered hand and a crippled arm. She had not
used her hand or arm in over six years because of
severe pain.
Ezra Booth challenged Joseph Smith to perform a
miracle and heal Elsa’s hand. Joseph ignored
him. Later, when the conversation had changed
to another topic, Joseph walked over to Elsa and
said, “Sister Johnson, hold out your arm and hand
as best you can.
In the name of Israel’s God, I make you whole,”
He then turned and walked out of the room. Ezra
later said that the feeling in the room was
electrifying! The next morning Elsa did a large
load of wash with her healed arm.
Ezra T. Booth
During his missionary travels investigators rejected
Ezra because he would call down fire from
heaven and then threaten to kill them if they
rejected his message.
People ridiculed him when it didn’t happen. He
then began to doubt the gospel and felt that
Joseph had tricked him.
Later, he tried to test the Prophet by asking him
the following question (September, 1831).
If you had 2 buckets that weighed the same, and
then filled them both full of water, and then put a
fish in one of the buckets, which bucket would
weigh more?
Joseph looked at him and said , “I don’t know.”
From that answer, Ezra knew that Joseph was a
fallen prophet because he could not answer the
question.
Ezra T. Booth wrote nine articles that were used in
the first anti-Mormon book ever written called
“Mormonism Unveiled.”
He was later called the “Father of Anti-Mormon
Literature.”